Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove Kennedy interview

Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove Kennedy
Recorded by Kathryn Tucker Windham. July 30, 1980; Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
Transcript prepared by Edna O. Meek and Yolanda Valentin.
Begin Side 2, Tape 1
(Note: Side 1, Tape1 appears to have been removed from this transcript)
K. T. Windham Now, you were saying that you were named Hargrove Kennedy? Named for …..?
Hargrove Kennedy Hargrove Kennedy. I was named after him. (VandeGraaff)
K. T. Windham Did your father work on the VandeGraaff place?
Hargrove Kennedy No, he worked on Mr. Smith’s place. Man called Mr. White Smith. That where my daddy worked at. That’s right.
K. T. Windham But he just knew Mr. VandeGraaff?
Hargrove Kennedy He knowed Mr. VandeGraaff. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Now, where was that house that he lived in?
Hargrove Kennedy Mr. VandeGraaff? He lived in Tuscaloosa, but he just come here, you know, the first of the year to make or rent the land, or somethin’, make up your rent and things. He was livin’ in Tuscaloosa.
K. T. Windham He’d come in to kind of settle things?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. It was his place, and he’d come in to see after, everybody’d be fixed. You know, how they farm and do.
K. T. Windham Well, who took care of his rents here, do you know? Who was in charge?
Hargrove Kennedy This was a man they called Blood Young, used to be here. What was his name? Arthur Young? I don’t know whether he named Arthur Young, but we all called him Blood Young. But what his name went by, I don’t know. Whether he went by Blood Young, or what. He come from Tuscaloosa. That’s right.
K. T. Windham He may have been kin to them. Hargrove Kennedy I don’t know whether he was kin to ‘em or no. But he had a family. He moved a family here.
K. T. Windham And did they live there at the big house?
Hargrove Kennedy The lived at the big house.
K. T. Windham Now, where was that house exactly?
Hargrove Kennedy That house was settin’ right up there where there’s another house they built. It’s settin’ right in the same spot. It’s on t’other side them brick houses. There’s three wooden houses up in that little spot, and he lived in the spot back thata way.
K. T. Windham Was it kinda close to the cemetery?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m. It’s close to the cemetery. Wont far from the cemetery. That’s right.
K. T. Windham and they called it Sandy Hill?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
Mrs. Kennedy My sister lived there, and her husband see over Mr. BandeGraaff’s cows and things.
Hargrove Kennedy He was named John Henry Miller.
K. T. Windham Now, I read about him. Somebody wrote something about him.
Hargrove Kennedy He seed after it before Mr. Young come in. And after Young come in, then he studied him somethin’ else.
K. T. Windham Now, Mr. VandeGraaff had some kind of wild cows down here, didn’t he?
Hargrove Kennedy Some wild cows, some mean cows, some fightin’ cows. That’s right. He had some bad cows.
K. T. Windham Were they down in the swamp?
Hargrove Kennedy Down in the swap. That’s right. Down in the swamp. And you had things you hadda go through there, they got at you, too.
K. T. Windham Did any of them ever chase you? Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Many times. They didn’t have no pickin’ and choosin’.
K. T. Windham But you outran them, I reckon?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Just stayed out their way. You see ‘em, see they goin’ catch you, you make it to a tree.
K. T. Windham And you could climb that tree, couldn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Climb that tree.
K. T. Windham Somebody told me about a man up a tree three days. You reckon that could be true?
Hargrove Kennedy I don’t know if that the truth ‘bout that, but I don’t believe he was.
K. T. Windham But they were just that bad, weren’t they?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m, just that bad. That’s right. Them’s the baddest cows I ever saw in my life.
K. T. Windham How did they get them down here? Did they bring them to Alberta?
Hargrove Kennedy They’s raised here. Straight raised here. Just wild cows, just didn’t nobody fool with ‘em. Just didn’t nobody hardly fool with ‘em.
K. T. Windham Now, the government sent some steers down here, didn’t they?
Hargrove Kennedy For the peoples to work. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Now, you remember that?
Hargrove Kennedy I remember that. When I was small, I didn’t never get a chance to plow them steers.
K. T. Windham Well, from what I’ve heard, you got off light then. I believe it was Lucy Pettway told me that was the meanest jpb she ever had, trying to plow a steer. She said they were worse than a mule, that they wouldn’t mind at all. Now, were you born down here? Both of you born down here?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. K. T. Windham Who were you?
Mrs. Kennedy I was a Bendoff before I married. My daddy was Patrick Bendoff and my mother was Indiana Bendoff. Before I married. Since I married I became a Kennedy.
K. T. Windham Now, there’s and Indiana Pettway.
Mrs. Kennedy That my sister.
K. T. Windham I had such a good visit with her one morning, not too long ago.
Mrs. Kennedy She told me ‘bout it, and I got somethin’ here for you, too, she left.
K. T. Windham Oh, you got something for me?
Mrs. Kennedy Yeah, I got somethin’ for you ‘fore you leave.
K. T. Windham But I did have such a nice visit.
Mrs. Kennedy She enjoyed you. She say she didn’t know what your name; didn’t know where you come from but she enjoyed you.
K. T. Windham Well, later, she told me she was lonesome that morning and she needed somebody to come talk to her.
Hargrove Kennedy I been seein’ you, but I wasn’t payin’ you no ‘tention, but I been seein’ you.
K. T. Windham Yes, I been in and out down here for about seven years.
Mrs. Kennedy That man who took that dog picture, he told me ‘bout Kathryn, but I was workin’ under a Kathryn up there to the quiltin’ bee. And I thought that was the same one.
K. T. Windham No, he was talking about this Kathryn.
Hargrove Kennedy He got a-many a picture goin’ through here, too.
K. T. Windham He has, he has, and he’s coming back down here on the second Sunday.
Hargrove Kennedy Second Sunday in August.
Mrs. Hargrove Us tryin’ to raise this church up about three years ago and tryin’ to get….. K. T. Windham Yeah, it was an old store, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham Moved it from Rehobeth?
Hargrove Kennedy Rehobeth. That’s right.
K. T. Windham And who’s your pastor there?
Mrs. Kennedy Rev. Spulin Pettway.
K. T. Windham Your brother-in-law. I’ve got a picture of him out in my car, made when he was a young man.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ nuff? I wish I could see it.
K. T. Windham Well, I’ll sure go bring it in.
Mrs. Kennedy Well, go bring it in.
Hargrove Kennedy When he was a young man?
K. T. Windham Yeah.
K. T. Windham And this is what you’re going to sing for Rhodes?
Mrs. Kennedy I’m goin’ dedicate it to Rhodes Johnston.
(Begins to sing)
“I want, I wan, I want somewhere to lay my head.
Oh, when I come down to the river,
I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.
Oh, children, I want, I want, I want somewhere
to lay my head
Oh, and when I come down to the river
I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.
First my dying pillow;
Faith it was the sign
I am goin’ in my room eternal more,
I’m goin’ pull on my slippers,
I’m gin’ try on my starry crown.
And I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.” Mrs. Kennedy I want Rhodes Johnston to have that.
K. T. Windham Now, that is beautiful. Who taught you that song?
Mrs. Kennedy I just learnt it. I got it off the radio.
K. T. Windham I thought maybe it was one you learned down here a long time ago.
Mrs. Kennedy Oh, I know a lot of songs. And I believe you the lady come to the wash house and got me to sing a song up there. And they gave me $2.00 to give Friendship. I don’t know who they was.
K. T. Windham I was with them.
Mrs. Kennedy You was with ‘em?
K. T. Windham You’d been in there at the Nutrition Site, been at Tinnie Dell’s Day Care Center, and then had walked over to the wash house.
Mrs. Kennedy And y’all wanted to hear some singing, and I sung some songs. I forgot what it was.
K. T. Windham But it was pretty. This has been a singing community all the time, hasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy All the time. That’s right.
Mrs. Kennedy Ever you run across Rhodes Johnston, I want you to play that for him. And tell him where it come from.
K. T. Windham All right. He’ll probably recognize it. I was talking to Mr. Pierce, the principle. You remember him?
Hargrove Kennedy I remember him.
K. T. Windham Did you go to school to him?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. I didn’t never go to school.
K. T. Windham Well, he as talking about how everybody could sing down here. And that he would take the children off and they would win prizes everywhere he would take them to sing.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. K. T. Windham That they were just brought up singing down here.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ was.
Hargrove Kennedy Rhodes Johnston had me put upon one time. He left here and we ain’t know where he. Just stayed away. Every evenin’ I come and I’d ask, “You ain’t seed Mr. Rhodes Johnston?” She say, “No, I ain’t seed him today.” I said, “Well, I tell you what. You ain’t nare good neighbor if you don’t go see ‘bout a fellow. I’m goin’ up here and I’m goin’ see is he in that house dead or livin’.” I went up in there and I couldn’t find him, and ‘way after while he come in. And the next one or two days I said, “Mr. Johnston, don’t you never do that no more. When you go ‘way, let us know where you goin’. We been pulled up. I come up in here and broke in your house, thought you was layin’ up in here dead.”
K. T. Windham Scared you’d find him dead.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. “Don’t ever do that.” Every time he got ready to go off somewhere, he come by here and tell us where he goin’ and tell us when he comin’ back. He said he sho’ ‘preciate us thought enough of him to do that.
K. T. Windham Well, that was nice of you.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. He ‘preciated it.
K. T. Windham Yeah, as I say, he’s a nice young man.
Hargrove Kennedy Well, now, after you learn him, he’s on of the best fellows you want to know. Heap of people thought he was mean, but he warn’t mean, he’s just a straight man. He never strayed. That’s right. Lot of people thought a lot of Mr. Johnston.
K. T. Windham Folks who rally know him. But you had to know him to appreciate him.
Hargrove Kennedy Then I tell you another thing. He straightened up a heap of things in here, too. He straightened up a lot of things.
K. T. Windham Yes, he did. And he was interested in it, too.
Hargrove Kennedy Interested in it, that’s right. And then the thing about it, what made
Me like him so good, he didn’t have no pickin’ and choosin’. All of ‘em come alike to him. That’s right. all of ‘em come alike. That’s right. K. T. Windham Hargroove, did you grow up working in the fields?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Been farmin�� all of my days ‘til a few years ago. I got disabled and it took so much to make a crop. Been farmin’ all the time. That’s right. Havin’ some rough days and some good days.
K. T. Windham Now, this is one of the government houses?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. One of the government houses they built for us. That was one of the best things, to be sure.
K. T. Windham How old were you when they came in here and built those houses?
Hargrove Kennedy Oughta been in my thirties back ‘long then.
K. T. Windham You were married then?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. I was married.
K. T. Windham Well, did you buy this house?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am.
K. T. Windham You the only one that’s ever lived in this house?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. It was sot up for me.
K. T. Windham And where was your house before you moved?
Hargrove Kennedy It was right up on this spot of hill. Right up on this same spot. It was and old log house.
K. T. Windham Whet did it look like?
Hargrove Kennedy It looked bad.
Mrs. Kennedy Made out of poles. Went in the piney woods, got some poles and skinned ‘em.
Hargrove Kennedy Skint ‘em and built it up.
Mrs. Kennedy Built ‘em and got some dirt and daubed them cracks up in it. That’s what us lived in ‘til us got this house. K. T. Windham How many rooms did that log house have?
Hargrove Kennedy Two.
Mrs. Kennedy We had three. Kitchen. A settin’ room and a bedroom.
K. T. Windham Was the kitchen on to the back?
Mrs. Kennedy On the back.
K. T. Windham And what kind of fireplace did you have?
Hargrove Kennedy Same old fireplace made up just like that.
Mrs. Kennedy Red mud.
Hargrove Kennedy Mud, sticks and mud.
K. T. Windham Was it on the end of one of the rooms?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. It was settin’ right in the middle, like it is now.
K. T. Windham And did it open in the bedroom and the living room, too?
Hargrove Kennedy We was sleepin’ in the same room with the fireplace. That’s right. Sleepin’ in the same room as the fireplace. Look like when they given us these house, look like that was the backwardest thing, to be sho’. But it wont. ‘Cause we was used to goin’ to bed to the fire.
K. T. Windham Did you cook in the fireplace, too?
Mrs. Kennedy No’m. I had an old piece of wooden stove to cook on. Sho’ did.
K. T. Windham Well, lot of people were still cooking on the fireplace when they built those houses.
Hargrove Kennedy
And Mrs. Kennedy Yes, ma’am.
Mrs. Kennedy And that was some good food they cook in the fireplace.
K. T. Windham Hoecake and……
Mrs. Kennedy Ash cake. I don’t reckon you know nothin’ ‘bout no ash cake. You make up that good old fire and let them ashes get hot, and make up that ash cake and slap it in them ashes and get it, you didn’t need nothin’ to eat with it. You done et.
K. T. Windham And that was good home ground meal, too, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy Righ, right. That’s right.
K. T. Windham You grew corn then on your place, didn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m. I growed corn when I was farmin’ then. I mostly raised everthin’ pretty much we used back yonder. Back ‘long in then, when us got straightened up in these houses. I was fixed to farm then.
K. T. Windham Yeah, the first chance you’d really had, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham To see what you could do.
Hargrove Kennedy It given all of us a chance.
K. T. Windham How many children did y’all have then?
Hargrove Kennedy We didn’t have but one.
Mrs. Kennedy Didn’t have but one and losed him in ’77, He’s gone. Died in ’77 and I ain’t got over with it yet.
K. T. Windham Well, you don’t get over missing somebody you love.
Mrs. Kennedy No, ma’am.
K. T. Windham Where did he live?
Mrs. Kennedy Lived in Ohio.
K. T. Windham But he grew up down here?
Mrs. Kennedy Yes’m. He growed up down here. Was raised here.
K. T. Windham Went to school here?
Mrs. Kennedy Went to school here. He didn’t finish school. After he got grown, he went on to Ohio with his grandma. That’s where he stayed. Stayed in Ohio about twenty years. I raised a girl for my sister, but she wasn’t my own livin’ child. I just raised her. She’s in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Connecticut.
K. T. Windham So many people from here are in Bridgeport.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ is.
K. T. Windham Do you remember what year you moved into this house?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. I sho’ can’t. I don’t know what…..
Mrs. Kennedy I believe it was….we married in ’36, didn’t we? We married in ’36. It was up in them ‘40’s, I believe, when we moved in this house. I don’t know what time of year it was, but I believe it was in the fall. Don’t know what year it was. Now, here’s one of them quilts us made. I sent it to a white lady’s baby in Washington, somewhere.
K. T. Windham Oh, isn’t that beautiful.
Mrs. Kennedy Now, that’s my picture there. And my nephew’s picture.
K. T. Windham Well, he’s a bif man, isn’t he? What a beautiful quilt. And look how happy that baby is with it. How’d you get started making quilts?
Mrs. Kennedy Well, my mother learned me how to make quilts when I was a kid. You know, back in time, they get them called quilt rolls. Wasn’t nothin’ but little string pieces, just like that. And she’ll sit down and cut them little pieces and give ‘em to us, and us would take ‘em and sew ‘em. After I married, I would just scrap and piece at home, tryin’ to make me some quilts. I used to walk up and down the road and pick up a ‘bacca sack out of the road, bring it home and wash it and put it in my quilt.
Hargrove Kennedy Them peoples was using ‘bacca.
K. T. Windham I used to put marbles in them.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Had a little draw string.
Mrs. Kennedy I started with quilts and after I went to workin’ up there at the Quiltin’ Bee, I learnt a little bit from up there, and there’s a white girl that come down here ���������� they call her Stephanie – she stay in Washington. Every now and then she’ll bring me all of her baby quilts and make some of her friends a baby quilt, and I sit down here and make ‘em with my hands. And quilt ‘em and send ‘em back to her. I can’t sew on a machine, ‘cause I suffer with high blood, and I can’t sew on a machine. I sit down and sew with my hands.
K. T. Windham ‘Cause you can do it at your own pace, when you want to.
Mrs. Kennedy At my own pace. If I messes up, I can soon take it loose, but if I messes up on a machine, it’ll take me a good little while to take it loose. I work to the Quiltin’ Bee when I could get a chance and I won’t be sick. Help myself some.
K. T. Windham Well, they make mighty pretty quilts up there.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ is. And they got some pretty prices on ‘em, too.
K. T. Windham Yeah, they sure have.
Mrs. Kennedy I never woulda believed quilts cost that much.
K. T. Windham I never would either. I don’t think I can sleep good under a quilt that costs that much. Well, your mother taught you how to make those ash cakes, too, didn’t she?
Mrs. Kennedy Uh, huh. Sho did. Taught me how to make ‘em good, too.
K. T. Windham I expect she had one of those heavy skillets with a top on it, and put it in the fireplace, didn’t she?
Mrs. Kennedy She did. She did. It was a heavy skillet. That’s how she baked her cake. And those the best things. Had them thick crustes to ‘em. That was the best thing. Lemme see, how many it was of us. I believe there was twelve of us, or sixteen of us, or somethin’. I was the youngest. I can’t tell you too much about her and her comin’ up, ‘cause I was the youngest one. But I tell you, it warn’t all that easy on me when I was comin’ up. It was sorta rough. We couldn’t get what we could get now, ‘cause, I tell you, in 1948..Was that ’48 my brother died?
Hargrove Kennedy I believe it was.
Mrs. Kennedy You know, I had one shoe, and I couldn’t go to the church. And hit was a right shoe. The left one had come apart. Now, this the truth I’m tellin’ you, I couldn’t go to the church. Hit’s so much better now than it was back. I didn’t even have fit clothes to wear to church. And there he right there. It was a lady over there at Miller’s Ferry called Miss Ella. She’d give folks some groceries, and sometimes she’ll give ‘em a pair of overhalls. He didn’t have clothes to wear over there to get him a pair of overhalls to put on. Everywhere he went, he had to have a needle with him to sew his britches when they bust. Now that’s the truth I’m tellin’ you.
K. T. Windham And didn’t have any to change into, did he?
Mrs. Kennedy Didn’t have nothin’ to change in. And some evenin’, we was workin’ the field all day, and that lady live ‘cross that road, she’ll give us half a jar of milk, and I come home, and I put that jar with water and I cook some bread, and that’s what we eat and go to bed. And don’t you think I thank my God for blessin’ me? God has been blessed me since then.
K. T. Windham And you can appreciate it.
Mrs. Kennedy I do. I appreciate it. I ‘preciate it. God have blessed us.
K. T. Windham Yeah, there were hard times back in then.
Mrs. Kennedy Hard times. Work all day, tote my baby up that hill; come in and cook; go to bed.
K. T. Windham Did you keep the baby in the field with you when you were working?
Mrs. Kennedy No’m. I left him at my mama’s house. Come by there every evenin’ and get him. He wont, say, a baby. He was two years old. We had a rough time. The Lord done blessed me, and I ‘preciate it, and I goin’ enjoy it, too, far as I could.
Hargrove Kennedy And I been seein’ for myself ever since I was twelve years old. That’s right. Granddaddy died, that who I was livin’ with. My Granddaddy and my mother, my Grandmother. And she didn’t have nothein’ and after she died, then I was just in the wourld like that by myself. My daddy, he warn’t no good to me. Hadn’t never did nothin’ but got me, and so I been seein�� for myself ever since I was twelve years old.
K. T. Windham Well, what was your first job? What did you do?
Hargrove Kennedy Go from field to field with somebody who…..Us would go ax somebody let us work with them. But now, peoples don’t do that. Me and her, after her married, you know how we lived? We worked in other folkese’ fields on Monday morning, Tuesday and Wednesday. Make us somethin’. then us would go work in us field, then. The latter part of the week. That’s how we made it, and got hold to somethin’. Now, you talk about hard times, I used to hard times.
K. T. Windham Well, I don’t see how you ever got a start.
Hargrove Kennedy Well, you remember the time….I don’t know whether you could remember, the president called old Hoover? Back in his time. I come up back along in then.
K. T. Windham Yeah, I was born then. I know about hard times, too.
Hargrove Kennedy Is an old man used to come here, come by here, called him dewberry John, paying ten cents a gallon, and we��d go in them woods and pick berries, enough to get us groceries and things. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Wonder what he was doing with those berries.
Hargrove Kennedy He’s makin’ wine and jelly and different things.
K. T. Windham And paying ten cents a gallon.
Mrs. Kennedy He was buyin’ that for a company. That’s what he said.
Hargrove Kennedy We come up a rough way.
Mrs. Kennedy And we tote them dewberries way out that swamp, down ‘cross that flat to Ellis’ Ferry.
K. T. Windham He’d come to the ferry and get them, huh?
Mrs. Kennedy That the reason my head so flat. I done tote so many buckets of dewberries on top of it.
K. T. Windham It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anybody tote anything on their head.
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, sir. We done had a rough way to go.
K. T. Windham Well, who did you live with after your grandparents died?
Hargrove Kennedy I lived with my grandmama, she died; and after she died, then I just went bouncin’ ‘bout here ‘til I growed up. How you think I got me a house? K. T. Windham I don’t know. How?
Hargrove Kennedy Mr. VandeGraaff bought me some lumber, and me and some boys did it ourselves.
K. T. Windham And that was your first house?
Hargrove Kennedy That was my first house. And we had a rough way to go.
K. T. Windham Well, Mr. VandeGraaff must have had a good heart.
Hargrove Kennedy He had a good heart, but he’ll come in here and he’ll give us somethin’. That’s right. He always looked like he was crazy about me.
K. T. Windham Well, you were named for him.
Hargrove Kennedy I was named….and I hope I’d a-been big enough, man enough I’d been living in Tuscaloosa now, ‘cause I was goin’ sho’ go with him. I mighta been up there – tell me there ain’t nothin’ in Tuscaloosa but rich folks. I mighta been one of them rich guys.
K. T. Windham Well, aren’t you glad you stayed down here?
Hargrove Kennedy I’m glad I stayed down here now. I’m glad.
K. T. Windham How old were you when you married?
Hargrove Kennedy Around twenty-two years old.
K. T. Windham Well, you’d been batchin’ around ten years, hadn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Batchin’ around.
K. T. Windham Well, where was that first house of yours built? Right here?
Hargrove Kennedy My first house was built right here.
K. T. Windham First one. That one he gave you the money for the lumber?
Hargrove Kennedy Gimme me the money and bought the lumber, that’s right.
K. T. Windham Well, he must have felt sorry for you. Hargrove Kennedy Well, that’s supposed to have been his job back along then. Everybody want a man, you know, a merchant, to generally build ‘em a house. But he didn’t do it. He just give me some money, so I bought me some lumber. And just give me enough to put a floor in it.
K. T. Windham And you built it out of poles? Now, who taught you how to build a house? You’d watch folks do it?
Hargrove Kennedy I’d watch folks do it. Back ‘long in time, they’d build houses, you know. Don’t have to pay ‘em a dime. Just put some ���taters in the ashes and roast ‘em, and you’d go there and work just for them ‘taters and penders and things. A fellow built up one of the nicest houses, to be sure, outta them poles and things. We didn’t have to charge nobody, but now you can��t get nothin’ less you pay for it now. And we worked together. And, like I said, a fellow get sick, we go there, and if it in the winter time, we go there and make up a fire and stay there with him, all night long. But people don’t do that now.
K. T. Windham And when they’d die, you’d do all the burying, wouldn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy Right. do all of the buryin’. Didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no funeral home. That’s right. He die that day, you got to bury him the next day. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Did you ever help make coffins?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m, I didn’t never help make no coffin. They had some fellows that did that. Called a Society, you know, and they make the coffin.
K. T. Windham A burial Society?
Hargrove Kennedy Burial Society.
K. T. Windham You still have one down here, don’t you? Isn’t Mrs. Witherspoon the secretary?
Hargrove Kennedy She secretary back up there.
K. T. Windham The one down here, who’s the secretary?
Hargrove Kennedy Wiley Moseley.
Mrs. Kennedy His wife run this Day Care Center up here. K. T. Windham Well, when does this meet, do you know? Do you have a regular meeting for it?
Hargrove Kennedy It be every first Friday night.
K. T. Windham Well, then, that’s…is this Friday the first?
Hargrove Kennedy This comin’ Friday.
Mrs. Kennedy Well, it won’t meet this comin’ Friday, ‘cause there’s a revival goin’ on. We don’t have nothin’ down here while revival goin’ on. ‘Cause it interfere with the revival. But when the revival close, then it’ll start back of a meetin’ like us been.
K. T. Windham And do you pay regular dues in this society?
Hargrove Kennedy Every month.
K. T. Windham Every month you pay?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Every month.
K. T. Windham Do you pay so much to join, too?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am, pay so much to join.
K. T. Windham And then when the member dies, they pay a certain amount of money.
Hargrove Kennedy Pay a certain amount of money. You see, it’s so far you can’t go all the way, but that’ll be a long ways on helping’ you out.
K. T. Windham How much are the dues now?
Mrs. Kennedy Three dollars a month.
Hargrove Kennedy Two fifty, ain’t it?
Mrs. Kennedy It’s two fifty to join, and two dollars a month.
Hargrove Kennedy And every time you lose a member, you pay a dollar.
K. T. Windham And all that goes to the member’s family? Wonder how many members on your roll now, do you know? Hargrove Kennedy We got a pretty good size roll.
Mrs. Kennedy No’m, we don’t know how many on ‘em.
K. T. Windham Wonder if See Bell was a member?
Hargrove Kennedy No, ma’am, she warn’t nare to us Society. I know she was a member to that one up in Alberta if she didn’t get out. I don’t know whether she kept it up or not.
K. T. Windham Well, she was just right on the edge of Gee’s Bend, near about out of it.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham But y’all don’t belong to the Pleasant Gove church?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. We belong to Friendship.
K. T. Windham Have you ever belonged to Pleasant Grove?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m, we ain’t never belonged.
Mrs. Kennedy But it don’t matter no difference to me. I go wherever I want.
K. T. Windham Wherever they’re having church?
Mrs. Kennedy That’s right. The onliest thing is the Lord put my church here in my heart, and I hold Him up anywhere….
(End side 2, Tape 1)

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Holding.Institution

Birmingham Public Library (Alabama)

Full Text

Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove Kennedy
Recorded by Kathryn Tucker Windham. July 30, 1980; Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
Transcript prepared by Edna O. Meek and Yolanda Valentin.
Begin Side 2, Tape 1
(Note: Side 1, Tape1 appears to have been removed from this transcript)
K. T. Windham Now, you were saying that you were named Hargrove Kennedy? Named for …..?
Hargrove Kennedy Hargrove Kennedy. I was named after him. (VandeGraaff)
K. T. Windham Did your father work on the VandeGraaff place?
Hargrove Kennedy No, he worked on Mr. Smith’s place. Man called Mr. White Smith. That where my daddy worked at. That’s right.
K. T. Windham But he just knew Mr. VandeGraaff?
Hargrove Kennedy He knowed Mr. VandeGraaff. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Now, where was that house that he lived in?
Hargrove Kennedy Mr. VandeGraaff? He lived in Tuscaloosa, but he just come here, you know, the first of the year to make or rent the land, or somethin’, make up your rent and things. He was livin’ in Tuscaloosa.
K. T. Windham He’d come in to kind of settle things?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. It was his place, and he’d come in to see after, everybody’d be fixed. You know, how they farm and do.
K. T. Windham Well, who took care of his rents here, do you know? Who was in charge?
Hargrove Kennedy This was a man they called Blood Young, used to be here. What was his name? Arthur Young? I don’t know whether he named Arthur Young, but we all called him Blood Young. But what his name went by, I don’t know. Whether he went by Blood Young, or what. He come from Tuscaloosa. That’s right.
K. T. Windham He may have been kin to them. Hargrove Kennedy I don’t know whether he was kin to ‘em or no. But he had a family. He moved a family here.
K. T. Windham And did they live there at the big house?
Hargrove Kennedy The lived at the big house.
K. T. Windham Now, where was that house exactly?
Hargrove Kennedy That house was settin’ right up there where there’s another house they built. It’s settin’ right in the same spot. It’s on t’other side them brick houses. There’s three wooden houses up in that little spot, and he lived in the spot back thata way.
K. T. Windham Was it kinda close to the cemetery?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m. It’s close to the cemetery. Wont far from the cemetery. That’s right.
K. T. Windham and they called it Sandy Hill?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
Mrs. Kennedy My sister lived there, and her husband see over Mr. BandeGraaff’s cows and things.
Hargrove Kennedy He was named John Henry Miller.
K. T. Windham Now, I read about him. Somebody wrote something about him.
Hargrove Kennedy He seed after it before Mr. Young come in. And after Young come in, then he studied him somethin’ else.
K. T. Windham Now, Mr. VandeGraaff had some kind of wild cows down here, didn’t he?
Hargrove Kennedy Some wild cows, some mean cows, some fightin’ cows. That’s right. He had some bad cows.
K. T. Windham Were they down in the swamp?
Hargrove Kennedy Down in the swap. That’s right. Down in the swamp. And you had things you hadda go through there, they got at you, too.
K. T. Windham Did any of them ever chase you? Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Many times. They didn’t have no pickin’ and choosin’.
K. T. Windham But you outran them, I reckon?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Just stayed out their way. You see ‘em, see they goin’ catch you, you make it to a tree.
K. T. Windham And you could climb that tree, couldn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Climb that tree.
K. T. Windham Somebody told me about a man up a tree three days. You reckon that could be true?
Hargrove Kennedy I don’t know if that the truth ‘bout that, but I don’t believe he was.
K. T. Windham But they were just that bad, weren’t they?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m, just that bad. That’s right. Them’s the baddest cows I ever saw in my life.
K. T. Windham How did they get them down here? Did they bring them to Alberta?
Hargrove Kennedy They’s raised here. Straight raised here. Just wild cows, just didn’t nobody fool with ‘em. Just didn’t nobody hardly fool with ‘em.
K. T. Windham Now, the government sent some steers down here, didn’t they?
Hargrove Kennedy For the peoples to work. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Now, you remember that?
Hargrove Kennedy I remember that. When I was small, I didn’t never get a chance to plow them steers.
K. T. Windham Well, from what I’ve heard, you got off light then. I believe it was Lucy Pettway told me that was the meanest jpb she ever had, trying to plow a steer. She said they were worse than a mule, that they wouldn’t mind at all. Now, were you born down here? Both of you born down here?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. K. T. Windham Who were you?
Mrs. Kennedy I was a Bendoff before I married. My daddy was Patrick Bendoff and my mother was Indiana Bendoff. Before I married. Since I married I became a Kennedy.
K. T. Windham Now, there’s and Indiana Pettway.
Mrs. Kennedy That my sister.
K. T. Windham I had such a good visit with her one morning, not too long ago.
Mrs. Kennedy She told me ‘bout it, and I got somethin’ here for you, too, she left.
K. T. Windham Oh, you got something for me?
Mrs. Kennedy Yeah, I got somethin’ for you ‘fore you leave.
K. T. Windham But I did have such a nice visit.
Mrs. Kennedy She enjoyed you. She say she didn’t know what your name; didn’t know where you come from but she enjoyed you.
K. T. Windham Well, later, she told me she was lonesome that morning and she needed somebody to come talk to her.
Hargrove Kennedy I been seein’ you, but I wasn’t payin’ you no ‘tention, but I been seein’ you.
K. T. Windham Yes, I been in and out down here for about seven years.
Mrs. Kennedy That man who took that dog picture, he told me ‘bout Kathryn, but I was workin’ under a Kathryn up there to the quiltin’ bee. And I thought that was the same one.
K. T. Windham No, he was talking about this Kathryn.
Hargrove Kennedy He got a-many a picture goin’ through here, too.
K. T. Windham He has, he has, and he’s coming back down here on the second Sunday.
Hargrove Kennedy Second Sunday in August.
Mrs. Hargrove Us tryin’ to raise this church up about three years ago and tryin’ to get….. K. T. Windham Yeah, it was an old store, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham Moved it from Rehobeth?
Hargrove Kennedy Rehobeth. That’s right.
K. T. Windham And who’s your pastor there?
Mrs. Kennedy Rev. Spulin Pettway.
K. T. Windham Your brother-in-law. I’ve got a picture of him out in my car, made when he was a young man.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ nuff? I wish I could see it.
K. T. Windham Well, I’ll sure go bring it in.
Mrs. Kennedy Well, go bring it in.
Hargrove Kennedy When he was a young man?
K. T. Windham Yeah.
K. T. Windham And this is what you’re going to sing for Rhodes?
Mrs. Kennedy I’m goin’ dedicate it to Rhodes Johnston.
(Begins to sing)
“I want, I wan, I want somewhere to lay my head.
Oh, when I come down to the river,
I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.
Oh, children, I want, I want, I want somewhere
to lay my head
Oh, and when I come down to the river
I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.
First my dying pillow;
Faith it was the sign
I am goin’ in my room eternal more,
I’m goin’ pull on my slippers,
I’m gin’ try on my starry crown.
And I want Jesus to make up my dying bed.” Mrs. Kennedy I want Rhodes Johnston to have that.
K. T. Windham Now, that is beautiful. Who taught you that song?
Mrs. Kennedy I just learnt it. I got it off the radio.
K. T. Windham I thought maybe it was one you learned down here a long time ago.
Mrs. Kennedy Oh, I know a lot of songs. And I believe you the lady come to the wash house and got me to sing a song up there. And they gave me $2.00 to give Friendship. I don’t know who they was.
K. T. Windham I was with them.
Mrs. Kennedy You was with ‘em?
K. T. Windham You’d been in there at the Nutrition Site, been at Tinnie Dell’s Day Care Center, and then had walked over to the wash house.
Mrs. Kennedy And y’all wanted to hear some singing, and I sung some songs. I forgot what it was.
K. T. Windham But it was pretty. This has been a singing community all the time, hasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy All the time. That’s right.
Mrs. Kennedy Ever you run across Rhodes Johnston, I want you to play that for him. And tell him where it come from.
K. T. Windham All right. He’ll probably recognize it. I was talking to Mr. Pierce, the principle. You remember him?
Hargrove Kennedy I remember him.
K. T. Windham Did you go to school to him?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. I didn’t never go to school.
K. T. Windham Well, he as talking about how everybody could sing down here. And that he would take the children off and they would win prizes everywhere he would take them to sing.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. K. T. Windham That they were just brought up singing down here.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ was.
Hargrove Kennedy Rhodes Johnston had me put upon one time. He left here and we ain’t know where he. Just stayed away. Every evenin’ I come and I’d ask, “You ain’t seed Mr. Rhodes Johnston?” She say, “No, I ain’t seed him today.” I said, “Well, I tell you what. You ain’t nare good neighbor if you don’t go see ‘bout a fellow. I’m goin’ up here and I’m goin’ see is he in that house dead or livin’.” I went up in there and I couldn’t find him, and ‘way after while he come in. And the next one or two days I said, “Mr. Johnston, don’t you never do that no more. When you go ‘way, let us know where you goin’. We been pulled up. I come up in here and broke in your house, thought you was layin’ up in here dead.”
K. T. Windham Scared you’d find him dead.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. “Don’t ever do that.” Every time he got ready to go off somewhere, he come by here and tell us where he goin’ and tell us when he comin’ back. He said he sho’ ‘preciate us thought enough of him to do that.
K. T. Windham Well, that was nice of you.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. He ‘preciated it.
K. T. Windham Yeah, as I say, he’s a nice young man.
Hargrove Kennedy Well, now, after you learn him, he’s on of the best fellows you want to know. Heap of people thought he was mean, but he warn’t mean, he’s just a straight man. He never strayed. That’s right. Lot of people thought a lot of Mr. Johnston.
K. T. Windham Folks who rally know him. But you had to know him to appreciate him.
Hargrove Kennedy Then I tell you another thing. He straightened up a heap of things in here, too. He straightened up a lot of things.
K. T. Windham Yes, he did. And he was interested in it, too.
Hargrove Kennedy Interested in it, that’s right. And then the thing about it, what made
Me like him so good, he didn’t have no pickin’ and choosin’. All of ‘em come alike to him. That’s right. all of ‘em come alike. That’s right. K. T. Windham Hargroove, did you grow up working in the fields?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. Been farmin�� all of my days ‘til a few years ago. I got disabled and it took so much to make a crop. Been farmin’ all the time. That’s right. Havin’ some rough days and some good days.
K. T. Windham Now, this is one of the government houses?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. One of the government houses they built for us. That was one of the best things, to be sure.
K. T. Windham How old were you when they came in here and built those houses?
Hargrove Kennedy Oughta been in my thirties back ‘long then.
K. T. Windham You were married then?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am. I was married.
K. T. Windham Well, did you buy this house?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am.
K. T. Windham You the only one that’s ever lived in this house?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. It was sot up for me.
K. T. Windham And where was your house before you moved?
Hargrove Kennedy It was right up on this spot of hill. Right up on this same spot. It was and old log house.
K. T. Windham Whet did it look like?
Hargrove Kennedy It looked bad.
Mrs. Kennedy Made out of poles. Went in the piney woods, got some poles and skinned ‘em.
Hargrove Kennedy Skint ‘em and built it up.
Mrs. Kennedy Built ‘em and got some dirt and daubed them cracks up in it. That’s what us lived in ‘til us got this house. K. T. Windham How many rooms did that log house have?
Hargrove Kennedy Two.
Mrs. Kennedy We had three. Kitchen. A settin’ room and a bedroom.
K. T. Windham Was the kitchen on to the back?
Mrs. Kennedy On the back.
K. T. Windham And what kind of fireplace did you have?
Hargrove Kennedy Same old fireplace made up just like that.
Mrs. Kennedy Red mud.
Hargrove Kennedy Mud, sticks and mud.
K. T. Windham Was it on the end of one of the rooms?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. It was settin’ right in the middle, like it is now.
K. T. Windham And did it open in the bedroom and the living room, too?
Hargrove Kennedy We was sleepin’ in the same room with the fireplace. That’s right. Sleepin’ in the same room as the fireplace. Look like when they given us these house, look like that was the backwardest thing, to be sho’. But it wont. ‘Cause we was used to goin’ to bed to the fire.
K. T. Windham Did you cook in the fireplace, too?
Mrs. Kennedy No’m. I had an old piece of wooden stove to cook on. Sho’ did.
K. T. Windham Well, lot of people were still cooking on the fireplace when they built those houses.
Hargrove Kennedy
And Mrs. Kennedy Yes, ma’am.
Mrs. Kennedy And that was some good food they cook in the fireplace.
K. T. Windham Hoecake and……
Mrs. Kennedy Ash cake. I don’t reckon you know nothin’ ‘bout no ash cake. You make up that good old fire and let them ashes get hot, and make up that ash cake and slap it in them ashes and get it, you didn’t need nothin’ to eat with it. You done et.
K. T. Windham And that was good home ground meal, too, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy Righ, right. That’s right.
K. T. Windham You grew corn then on your place, didn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes’m. I growed corn when I was farmin’ then. I mostly raised everthin’ pretty much we used back yonder. Back ‘long in then, when us got straightened up in these houses. I was fixed to farm then.
K. T. Windham Yeah, the first chance you’d really had, wasn’t it?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham To see what you could do.
Hargrove Kennedy It given all of us a chance.
K. T. Windham How many children did y’all have then?
Hargrove Kennedy We didn’t have but one.
Mrs. Kennedy Didn’t have but one and losed him in ’77, He’s gone. Died in ’77 and I ain’t got over with it yet.
K. T. Windham Well, you don’t get over missing somebody you love.
Mrs. Kennedy No, ma’am.
K. T. Windham Where did he live?
Mrs. Kennedy Lived in Ohio.
K. T. Windham But he grew up down here?
Mrs. Kennedy Yes’m. He growed up down here. Was raised here.
K. T. Windham Went to school here?
Mrs. Kennedy Went to school here. He didn’t finish school. After he got grown, he went on to Ohio with his grandma. That’s where he stayed. Stayed in Ohio about twenty years. I raised a girl for my sister, but she wasn’t my own livin’ child. I just raised her. She’s in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Connecticut.
K. T. Windham So many people from here are in Bridgeport.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ is.
K. T. Windham Do you remember what year you moved into this house?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. I sho’ can’t. I don’t know what…..
Mrs. Kennedy I believe it was….we married in ’36, didn’t we? We married in ’36. It was up in them ‘40’s, I believe, when we moved in this house. I don’t know what time of year it was, but I believe it was in the fall. Don’t know what year it was. Now, here’s one of them quilts us made. I sent it to a white lady’s baby in Washington, somewhere.
K. T. Windham Oh, isn’t that beautiful.
Mrs. Kennedy Now, that’s my picture there. And my nephew’s picture.
K. T. Windham Well, he’s a bif man, isn’t he? What a beautiful quilt. And look how happy that baby is with it. How’d you get started making quilts?
Mrs. Kennedy Well, my mother learned me how to make quilts when I was a kid. You know, back in time, they get them called quilt rolls. Wasn’t nothin’ but little string pieces, just like that. And she’ll sit down and cut them little pieces and give ‘em to us, and us would take ‘em and sew ‘em. After I married, I would just scrap and piece at home, tryin’ to make me some quilts. I used to walk up and down the road and pick up a ‘bacca sack out of the road, bring it home and wash it and put it in my quilt.
Hargrove Kennedy Them peoples was using ‘bacca.
K. T. Windham I used to put marbles in them.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Had a little draw string.
Mrs. Kennedy I started with quilts and after I went to workin’ up there at the Quiltin’ Bee, I learnt a little bit from up there, and there’s a white girl that come down here ���������� they call her Stephanie – she stay in Washington. Every now and then she’ll bring me all of her baby quilts and make some of her friends a baby quilt, and I sit down here and make ‘em with my hands. And quilt ‘em and send ‘em back to her. I can’t sew on a machine, ‘cause I suffer with high blood, and I can’t sew on a machine. I sit down and sew with my hands.
K. T. Windham ‘Cause you can do it at your own pace, when you want to.
Mrs. Kennedy At my own pace. If I messes up, I can soon take it loose, but if I messes up on a machine, it’ll take me a good little while to take it loose. I work to the Quiltin’ Bee when I could get a chance and I won’t be sick. Help myself some.
K. T. Windham Well, they make mighty pretty quilts up there.
Mrs. Kennedy Sho’ is. And they got some pretty prices on ‘em, too.
K. T. Windham Yeah, they sure have.
Mrs. Kennedy I never woulda believed quilts cost that much.
K. T. Windham I never would either. I don’t think I can sleep good under a quilt that costs that much. Well, your mother taught you how to make those ash cakes, too, didn’t she?
Mrs. Kennedy Uh, huh. Sho did. Taught me how to make ‘em good, too.
K. T. Windham I expect she had one of those heavy skillets with a top on it, and put it in the fireplace, didn’t she?
Mrs. Kennedy She did. She did. It was a heavy skillet. That’s how she baked her cake. And those the best things. Had them thick crustes to ‘em. That was the best thing. Lemme see, how many it was of us. I believe there was twelve of us, or sixteen of us, or somethin’. I was the youngest. I can’t tell you too much about her and her comin’ up, ‘cause I was the youngest one. But I tell you, it warn’t all that easy on me when I was comin’ up. It was sorta rough. We couldn’t get what we could get now, ‘cause, I tell you, in 1948..Was that ’48 my brother died?
Hargrove Kennedy I believe it was.
Mrs. Kennedy You know, I had one shoe, and I couldn’t go to the church. And hit was a right shoe. The left one had come apart. Now, this the truth I’m tellin’ you, I couldn’t go to the church. Hit’s so much better now than it was back. I didn’t even have fit clothes to wear to church. And there he right there. It was a lady over there at Miller’s Ferry called Miss Ella. She’d give folks some groceries, and sometimes she’ll give ‘em a pair of overhalls. He didn’t have clothes to wear over there to get him a pair of overhalls to put on. Everywhere he went, he had to have a needle with him to sew his britches when they bust. Now that’s the truth I’m tellin’ you.
K. T. Windham And didn’t have any to change into, did he?
Mrs. Kennedy Didn’t have nothin’ to change in. And some evenin’, we was workin’ the field all day, and that lady live ‘cross that road, she’ll give us half a jar of milk, and I come home, and I put that jar with water and I cook some bread, and that’s what we eat and go to bed. And don’t you think I thank my God for blessin’ me? God has been blessed me since then.
K. T. Windham And you can appreciate it.
Mrs. Kennedy I do. I appreciate it. I ‘preciate it. God have blessed us.
K. T. Windham Yeah, there were hard times back in then.
Mrs. Kennedy Hard times. Work all day, tote my baby up that hill; come in and cook; go to bed.
K. T. Windham Did you keep the baby in the field with you when you were working?
Mrs. Kennedy No’m. I left him at my mama’s house. Come by there every evenin’ and get him. He wont, say, a baby. He was two years old. We had a rough time. The Lord done blessed me, and I ‘preciate it, and I goin’ enjoy it, too, far as I could.
Hargrove Kennedy And I been seein’ for myself ever since I was twelve years old. That’s right. Granddaddy died, that who I was livin’ with. My Granddaddy and my mother, my Grandmother. And she didn’t have nothein’ and after she died, then I was just in the wourld like that by myself. My daddy, he warn’t no good to me. Hadn’t never did nothin’ but got me, and so I been seein�� for myself ever since I was twelve years old.
K. T. Windham Well, what was your first job? What did you do?
Hargrove Kennedy Go from field to field with somebody who…..Us would go ax somebody let us work with them. But now, peoples don’t do that. Me and her, after her married, you know how we lived? We worked in other folkese’ fields on Monday morning, Tuesday and Wednesday. Make us somethin’. then us would go work in us field, then. The latter part of the week. That’s how we made it, and got hold to somethin’. Now, you talk about hard times, I used to hard times.
K. T. Windham Well, I don’t see how you ever got a start.
Hargrove Kennedy Well, you remember the time….I don’t know whether you could remember, the president called old Hoover? Back in his time. I come up back along in then.
K. T. Windham Yeah, I was born then. I know about hard times, too.
Hargrove Kennedy Is an old man used to come here, come by here, called him dewberry John, paying ten cents a gallon, and we��d go in them woods and pick berries, enough to get us groceries and things. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Wonder what he was doing with those berries.
Hargrove Kennedy He’s makin’ wine and jelly and different things.
K. T. Windham And paying ten cents a gallon.
Mrs. Kennedy He was buyin’ that for a company. That’s what he said.
Hargrove Kennedy We come up a rough way.
Mrs. Kennedy And we tote them dewberries way out that swamp, down ‘cross that flat to Ellis’ Ferry.
K. T. Windham He’d come to the ferry and get them, huh?
Mrs. Kennedy That the reason my head so flat. I done tote so many buckets of dewberries on top of it.
K. T. Windham It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anybody tote anything on their head.
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, sir. We done had a rough way to go.
K. T. Windham Well, who did you live with after your grandparents died?
Hargrove Kennedy I lived with my grandmama, she died; and after she died, then I just went bouncin’ ‘bout here ‘til I growed up. How you think I got me a house? K. T. Windham I don’t know. How?
Hargrove Kennedy Mr. VandeGraaff bought me some lumber, and me and some boys did it ourselves.
K. T. Windham And that was your first house?
Hargrove Kennedy That was my first house. And we had a rough way to go.
K. T. Windham Well, Mr. VandeGraaff must have had a good heart.
Hargrove Kennedy He had a good heart, but he’ll come in here and he’ll give us somethin’. That’s right. He always looked like he was crazy about me.
K. T. Windham Well, you were named for him.
Hargrove Kennedy I was named….and I hope I’d a-been big enough, man enough I’d been living in Tuscaloosa now, ‘cause I was goin’ sho’ go with him. I mighta been up there – tell me there ain’t nothin’ in Tuscaloosa but rich folks. I mighta been one of them rich guys.
K. T. Windham Well, aren’t you glad you stayed down here?
Hargrove Kennedy I’m glad I stayed down here now. I’m glad.
K. T. Windham How old were you when you married?
Hargrove Kennedy Around twenty-two years old.
K. T. Windham Well, you’d been batchin’ around ten years, hadn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Batchin’ around.
K. T. Windham Well, where was that first house of yours built? Right here?
Hargrove Kennedy My first house was built right here.
K. T. Windham First one. That one he gave you the money for the lumber?
Hargrove Kennedy Gimme me the money and bought the lumber, that’s right.
K. T. Windham Well, he must have felt sorry for you. Hargrove Kennedy Well, that’s supposed to have been his job back along then. Everybody want a man, you know, a merchant, to generally build ‘em a house. But he didn’t do it. He just give me some money, so I bought me some lumber. And just give me enough to put a floor in it.
K. T. Windham And you built it out of poles? Now, who taught you how to build a house? You’d watch folks do it?
Hargrove Kennedy I’d watch folks do it. Back ‘long in time, they’d build houses, you know. Don’t have to pay ‘em a dime. Just put some ���taters in the ashes and roast ‘em, and you’d go there and work just for them ‘taters and penders and things. A fellow built up one of the nicest houses, to be sure, outta them poles and things. We didn’t have to charge nobody, but now you can��t get nothin’ less you pay for it now. And we worked together. And, like I said, a fellow get sick, we go there, and if it in the winter time, we go there and make up a fire and stay there with him, all night long. But people don’t do that now.
K. T. Windham And when they’d die, you’d do all the burying, wouldn’t you?
Hargrove Kennedy Right. do all of the buryin’. Didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no funeral home. That’s right. He die that day, you got to bury him the next day. That’s right.
K. T. Windham Did you ever help make coffins?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m, I didn’t never help make no coffin. They had some fellows that did that. Called a Society, you know, and they make the coffin.
K. T. Windham A burial Society?
Hargrove Kennedy Burial Society.
K. T. Windham You still have one down here, don’t you? Isn’t Mrs. Witherspoon the secretary?
Hargrove Kennedy She secretary back up there.
K. T. Windham The one down here, who’s the secretary?
Hargrove Kennedy Wiley Moseley.
Mrs. Kennedy His wife run this Day Care Center up here. K. T. Windham Well, when does this meet, do you know? Do you have a regular meeting for it?
Hargrove Kennedy It be every first Friday night.
K. T. Windham Well, then, that’s…is this Friday the first?
Hargrove Kennedy This comin’ Friday.
Mrs. Kennedy Well, it won’t meet this comin’ Friday, ‘cause there’s a revival goin’ on. We don’t have nothin’ down here while revival goin’ on. ‘Cause it interfere with the revival. But when the revival close, then it’ll start back of a meetin’ like us been.
K. T. Windham And do you pay regular dues in this society?
Hargrove Kennedy Every month.
K. T. Windham Every month you pay?
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right. Every month.
K. T. Windham Do you pay so much to join, too?
Hargrove Kennedy Yes, ma’am, pay so much to join.
K. T. Windham And then when the member dies, they pay a certain amount of money.
Hargrove Kennedy Pay a certain amount of money. You see, it’s so far you can’t go all the way, but that’ll be a long ways on helping’ you out.
K. T. Windham How much are the dues now?
Mrs. Kennedy Three dollars a month.
Hargrove Kennedy Two fifty, ain’t it?
Mrs. Kennedy It’s two fifty to join, and two dollars a month.
Hargrove Kennedy And every time you lose a member, you pay a dollar.
K. T. Windham And all that goes to the member’s family? Wonder how many members on your roll now, do you know? Hargrove Kennedy We got a pretty good size roll.
Mrs. Kennedy No’m, we don’t know how many on ‘em.
K. T. Windham Wonder if See Bell was a member?
Hargrove Kennedy No, ma’am, she warn’t nare to us Society. I know she was a member to that one up in Alberta if she didn’t get out. I don’t know whether she kept it up or not.
K. T. Windham Well, she was just right on the edge of Gee’s Bend, near about out of it.
Hargrove Kennedy That’s right.
K. T. Windham But y’all don’t belong to the Pleasant Gove church?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m. We belong to Friendship.
K. T. Windham Have you ever belonged to Pleasant Grove?
Hargrove Kennedy No’m, we ain’t never belonged.
Mrs. Kennedy But it don’t matter no difference to me. I go wherever I want.
K. T. Windham Wherever they’re having church?
Mrs. Kennedy That’s right. The onliest thing is the Lord put my church here in my heart, and I hold Him up anywhere….
(End side 2, Tape 1)